Police: 14 Illegal Immigrants Fled SUV During Traffic Stop

A routine traffic stop for tailgating along Interstate 40 led to the arrest of 13 suspected illegal immigrants.

The incident occurred in Oklahoma about 40 miles west of Oklahoma City on Tuesday morning. A state trooper had stopped a maroon SUV for tailgating a semi truck in the eastbound lanes of I-40.

As he questioned the driver, passengers began fleeing the vehicle, jumping onto the shoulder of the road and running off into the hills and, in a few cases, across the interstate – 14 of them in all. The trooper's dashcam captured their escape.

"I couldn't fathom that they had gotten that many people in that car," Cody Palmer, a Canadian County Sheriff's Department employee told KOCO-TV.

By Wednesday, 13 of the suspected illegal immigrants had been arrested in a search conducted by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Canadian County Sheriff's Department, the state Agriculture Department, Immigrant and Customs Enforcements and K-9 units. One person remained at large.

Police said the SUV was initially pulled over because it was tailgating a semi, leaving less than one car length's distance between itself and the truck.